Film and Music Video Theories

Media Studies lesson 3/10/12

The Three Main Theories

Feminist Theory Marxist Theory Psychoanalytic Theory

Feminist Theory

The Male Gaze The function of women in particular genres Feminist criticism in general

The Male Gaze

Film constructs a “view” for us of the events, like looking through a keyhole

The film-maker, the film system, ultimately society itself, conspires to construct that “view” or GAZE

The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (1975)

The Male Gaze

scopophilia - the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects. Cf. Big Brother

“Traditional films present men as active, controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men in both the story and in the audience, and do not allow women to be desiring sexual subjects in their own right.” (Notes on 'The Gaze‘, Daniel Chandler)

Cf. Hip-hop/dance videos

The Male Gaze

‘As the spectator identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look onto that of his like, his screen surrogate, so that the power of the male protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the erotic look, both giving a satisfying sense of omnipotence’

Cf. identification with singer in hip-hop/RnB videos

The Male Gaze

Shot Reverse Shot:

1. We see the face of the (male) actor look at something.

2. We see the object s/he are looking at

3. We go back to the face of the actor to see his/her reaction

The Function of Women

The villain The donor The helper The Princess (or

sought-for person) The dispatcher The hero/victim The false hero

Vladimir Propp, The Morphology of the Folk Tale

The Function of Women in music video •The object of desire

Or

•The embodiment of power and control?

Roles in music video genres

Rock Hip-hop R’n’B Indie Garage/Dance Reality Pop

Women’s roles

Video makers – directors, producers

Singers/bands Extras

http://www.musicvideowire.com/

Feminist criticism

Looks at the film from the perspective of women e.g. Babe

A film about a woman (the farmer’s wife)’s attempts to break free from male dominated industry (she tries to have the pig killed) but is thwarted by his sentimentality.

Marxism

Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” (1867) Throughout history, there has been a

struggle between a ruling class and an oppressed class via modes of production (machines, working conditions)

The proletariat should own the means of production

Marxist Film Theory

The film system, in particular Hollywood, not only promotes but reinforces the struggle:

• Film equipment• Film studios• Financing• Images• Therefore, if the makers of the music make

their own videos, that satisfies Marxist theory

Marxist Film Theory

Shot Reverse Shot – seen by Marxists as promoting capitalist ideology/Hollywood ideal (a sort of Boss Gaze)

Institutional Mode of Representation Sergei Eisenstein – “Battleship Potempkin”

Cf The Untouchables

Marxist Film Theory

Hegelian Dialectic

1. Thesis – initial idea

2. Antithesis - opposing Idea

3. Synthesis – final

outcome based on an

understanding of both

thesis

Marxist Film Theory

Lev Kuleshov was an early Russian filmmaker who believed that juxtaposing two unrelated images could convey a separate meaning. In his experiment he filmed Mozhukhin, a famous Russian actor, and shots of a bowl of soup, a girl, a teddy bear, and a child's coffin. He then cut the shot of the actor into the other shot; each time it was the same shot of the actor. Viewers felt that the shots of the actor conveyed different emotions, though each time it was in fact the same shot.

Cf. montage in music video

Marxist Film Theory

Remove the protagonist

Let the images tell the story

Marxist Theory

Marxist literary theory: How does the author's social and economic

class show through in the work? Does the work support the economic and

social status quo, or does it advocate change? (Particularly appropriate for dystopian/utopian novels.)

What role does the class system play in the work?

Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud – psychoanalyst Much of our behaviour is

characterised by suppressed sexual desires from our childhood

Dreams analysis Symbolism e.g. phallic objects Cf surrealism

Psychoanalytic Theory

The Id The Id (Latin, = "it" = "es"

in the original German) represented primary process thinking -- our most primitive need gratification type thoughts. The Id, Freud stated, constitutes part of one's unconscious mind. It acts on primitive instinctual urges (sex, hunger, anger etc).

Psychoanalytic Theory

The Superego The Superego represented our

conscience and counteracted the Id with moral and ethical thoughts. The Superego, Freud stated, is the moral agent that links both our conscious and unconscious minds. The Superego stands in opposition to the desires of the Id. The Superego is itself part of the unconscious mind; it is the internalization of the world view and norms and mores a child absorbs from parents and peers. As the conscience, it is knowledge of right and wrong; as world view it is knowledge of what is real.

Psychoanalytic Theory

The Ego The Ego stands in between both to

balance our primitive needs and our moral/ethical beliefs. ("Ego" means "I" in Latin). Freud stated that the Ego resides almost entirely in our conscious mind.

In Freud's view the Ego stands in between both to balance our primitive needs and our moral/ethical beliefs. Relying on experience, a healthy Ego provides the ability to adapt to reality and interact with the outside world in a way that accommodates both Id and Superego.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Like Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions, a character’s motivation could be the ego’s attempts to mediate between the id and the super-ego

Psychoanalytic Theory

Jacques Lacan Laura Mulvey Shot Reverse Shot